Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce The Big Apple, a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.

"Soup’s on!” is the timeless call that means that dinner’s ready and everyone should come to the table. The longer phrase --"soup’s on the table” ("soup’s on the stove” wouldn’t make any sense)—dates from at least the 1840s.

The shortened “Soup’s on!” appears to have been popularized by the nationally syndicated comic strip “The Gumps” in 1928, when the phrase was used often. The phrase “Soup’s on!” then began appearing frequently in newspaper headlines. The phrase is still used, although the call to the family meal isn’t heard as often today (when the family often eats at different times, rather than all together).

Wikipedia: The GumpsThe Gumps, a popular comic strip about a middle-class family, was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917 until October 17, 1959.

The Gumps were utterly ordinary: chinless, bombastic blowhard Andy who is intimidated by his wife, Min (short for Minerva), their son Chester, rich Uncle Bim and their annoying maid Tilda. They had a cat called Hope and a dog called Buck. The idea was envisioned by Captain Joseph M. Patterson, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, who was important in the early histories of Little Orphan Annie and other long-run comic strips. Patterson referred to the masses as “gumps” and thought a strip about the domestic lives of ordinary people and their ordinary happenings would appeal to the “gumps.” He hired Smith to write and draw the strip, and it was Smith who breathed life into the characters.

Google Books
August 1842, Dublin University Magazine, pg. 145, col. 1:
“Your reverence has a minute and a-half yet; but the soup’s on the table.”

Google BooksThe Makings of a Big Leaguer
By Burt L. Standish
New York, NY: Barse & Hopkins
1915
Pg. 157:
“Now the soup’s on the tablecloth!” he thought, as he slid into his coat and moved rapidly away.

Google BooksWoman about Town:
A Novel
By Allis McKay
New York, NY: Macmillan
1938
Pg. 79:
... departed and left them alone in the twilight-filling room, and Skip, with an apron around his massive waist, appeared in the door and said, “Soup’s on.”

Google BooksFlesh is Not Life
By Hilary Leighton Barth
Published by The Bruce Publishing Company
1938
Pg. 234:
“She says soup’s on — and insisting as usual that we shouldn’t wait. Shall we talk vicious circle over our buffalo?”

13 December 1949, Dallas (TX) Morning News, section 3, pg. 4:
Soup’s On
If you are one of those fortunate souls who stroll on December evenings, and whose olfactories are in order, no doubt you know it is soup season.